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Six-hour Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind kabuki stage play is finally coming out on home video

Casey Baseel Nov 15, 2020
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You can enjoy the first-ever complete adaptation of Hayao Miyazaki’s original story from the comfort of your couch.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind has a special place in history. The first original Hayao Miyazaki theatrical feature is one of the most beautifully realized films ever made, and continues to be a must-see for anyone with an interest in anime, even more than three decades after its 1984 release.

So it’s kind of ironic that despite the Nausicaa anime’s popular longevity, the Nausicaa kabuki stage adaptation ran for less than three weeks before its final curtain on Christmas day last year. Making that short run especially bittersweet is that the Nausicaa anime covers only a small portion of the entire storyline, with the remaining events of Miyazaki’s Nausicaa manga never adapted to any other medium before the kabuki play, which takes the audience through the complete saga.

▼ Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind kabuki

But if you couldn’t make it to the Shinbashi Enbujo theater in Tokyo last December, there’s good news, as the Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is finally being released on home video.

The multi-disc set is being released as part of the Ghibli ga Ippai (“Full of Ghibli”) Collection, Studio Ghibli’s home video brand banner. Two formats are being offered: a two-disc Blu-ray set, and a four-disc DVD version.

Both versions contain the same video contents, consisting of the entire play and extras such as a cast curtain call and interview with Kikunosuke Onoe, the actor who plays the lead role of warrior princess Nausicaa. Other goodies include a reversible jacket for the disc case, giving you the choice between the kabuki production’s dramatic poster image or the minimalist brushstroke calligraphy featured on the covers of other Ghibli ga Ippai Collection releases, and a 32-page photo book.

The Blu-ray set is priced at 12,000 yen (US$114) and settling for the DVD drops the price down to 9,600 yen. Those are both pretty big hits to the wallet, but on the plus side kabuki plays are long, and the total length of the Nausicaa adaptation is a whopping six hours and three minutes.

The set officially goes on sale January 20, but pre-orders can already be placed online here through distributor Disney or here with Amazon Japan, which is selling the Blu-ray at a discounted price of 10,200 yen.

Source: Studio Ghibli
Top image: YouTube/ディズニー・スタジオ公式
Insert images: Studio Ghibli, YouTube/ディズニー・スタジオ公式
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